CONSONANCE AND DISSONANCE BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND NURSING'S OCCUPATIONAL CULTURES IN THREE HOSPITALS.
Contributors: University of Oregon.
Published: 1988
Number of pages: 230
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.
Description: All organizations exhibit cultural traits expressed in symbols and rituals that serve to communicate and perpetuate the beliefs and values shared by the organizations' members. Within organizations, subcultures may also develop reflecting the more specific traits of distinct occupational groups. Registered nurses are an occupational culture in hospitals; nurses, for example, engage in the same sort of work, draw their identity from professional activities, and experience intense collegiality that often continues into activities outside the work unit.

This research reports multiple methodologies to investigate the phenomena of occupational and organizational cultures in three semiurban hospitals in Oregon. A survey data instrument provided information about the type and distribution of organizational and work unit ideology, the strength of cultural ideologies, and the extent of cultural homogeneity. An open-ended cultural inventory provided qualitative data that helped create a basis for understanding the results of the survey by answering questions about the: (a) development and maintenance of occupational and organizational cultures in the hospital, (b) socialization of individuals into the work unit, and (c) the dynamics of cultural change in the larger organization. In order to answer questions about cultural change over time, the researcher studied a variety of archival data.

Findings suggest that occupational cultures were consonant with the larger organizational culture in two of the hospitals. In the third hospital, however, the occupational culture appears in dissonance with other occupational cultures and, therefore, also with the larger organizational culture. The findings have implications for management strategies in conflict resolution, staff development, and other forms of organizational change in hospitals.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: B, page: 5232.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF OREGON, 1988.

School code: 0171.